With all the holiday
preparations and celebrations, we’ve been having trouble finding people
to staff the exhibition. To
volunteer,please contact wenjin@... - it makes a big difference when we talk and share our personal
experiences with visitors to the exhibition, because this personal contact
brings the issues much closer and is likely to be more convincing than an
exhibition with no human touch.

Venue For VSS 2009 AGM?

VSS holds it AGM every year in March. This
year is our 10th anniversary. We need a venue near an MRT that can
hold about 50 people and where delicious veg food can be consumed. If anyone
can secure such a venue for the last weekend in March, please contact info@...

Asian Vegetarian Congress – 6-10
Nov, 2009

The 4th Asian Vegetarian Congress,
organised by the Asian Vegetarian Union and the Indonesia Vegetarian Society,
will be held on Batam
from 6-10 Nov. Among those who have agreed to speak are 2007
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, R.K. Pachauri, well-known vegetarian crusader
Maneka Gandhi, and IVU Regional Coordinators for
India and for Asia-Pacific,
Shankar Narayan
and Susianto Tseng, respectively.

VSS is a member of the International
Vegetarian Union (IVU): www.ivu.org The 39th IVU World Vegetarian
Congress will be held next year in
Indonesia ,
1-7 Oct, 2010. The Congress starts in Jakarta
and then moves to Bali .
An outline of the programme is available at http://www.ivu.org/congress/2010/index.html

The price is $50, inclusive of lunch, the
cooking class, plus a nutrition talk on how to supplement your diet, weight
management and how to do simple detox.

For registration, contact NutriHub Café at
6738.2746 or SMS Ms Vinitha Ang at 9236.8402 before 6 Feb. 10% discount for
groups of 3 persons or more. To view their menu and other workshops, plus
services, visit their blog: http://www.nutrihub.blogspot.com

Vegetarian
Cooking Class On Lavender Street

A reader sent the following announcement for a
vegetarian cooking class.

When: Begins
13 Feb, Fri, at 7.30pm-9.30pm, for 8 consecutive Fridays

What: 8
Lessons (24 dishes); 3 Dishes/Lesson

Where: 288A
Lavender St .

MRT: Boon
Keng or Lavender

Bus: 13,
21, 23, 64, 65, 66, 67, 125, 130, 133, 139, 145, 149

How Much: $80 for the course (fees exclude ingredient
costs for every lesson at $2)

Komala’s, the fast food Indian veg
chain, has opened a new outlet at 930
Yishun Avenue 2, Food Mall, Northpoint Shopping Centre Basement
2. We weren’t able to find details about opening hours,
but they should soon be on its website: http://www.komalasweb.com

“The
world longs for peace, respect and dignity. The Environment is being
mercilessly destroyed and gives back its answer. Natural resources are being
exhausted by the unsustainable exploitation imposed by a wasteful mode of life.
We lose species diversity without even knowing it. Diseases, obesity, suffering
and hunger abound.

After so many years of
ideals of 'peace and love', 'gender and ethnic equality', ‘freedom of
speech' and 'respect for nature' we still crawl on, delegating to others the
task of bringing about lasting, real changes. By changing our life style we can
play a vital role in the construction of the better world we all want, where
the white dove of peace can rest her tired feet.”

“There aren't many worse insults for a human than to
be called an animal, but these books--which do just that, at great length--are
instead strangely ennobling. They make you realize how much effort we expend
every day convincing ourselves that we're different and what a relief it is to
admit that we're not. It's lonely here at the top of the tool-using
hierarchy--why don't we let down our fur and join the club? If they'll have us,
that is. If animals could describe us in return, the results might not be so
flattering.”

Starting A Vegetarian Business

This interview in the Wall Street Journal describes the
difficult beginnings of a now successful vegetarian business in the
U.S. During the
early years, the founder even lived in a tree house to save money.

A Singaporean living
in Germany
sent these short articles about how meat reduction there has fallen and how the
government is encouraging people to eat even less meat:

“A 2008 report from Federal Statistics Agency Destatis
showed that meat consumption has dropped steadily since the early 1990’s,
due mainly to health concerns. In 1991, Germans ate 64 kilogrammes of meat per
year – more than a Big Mac per day. By 2006, Germans were averaging 58.7
kilogrammes of meat per year – closer to a Quarter Pounder per day.”

“According to Destatis ,
Germany 's
federal statistics agency, meat consumption in the country has fallen from an
annual 64kg a head in 1991 to 58.7kg today. Health concerns are the main reason
for the drop, it said.”

If this is possible in
Germany ,
known for its sausages and other meat dishes, why can’t it happen
everywhere?

Matchmaking – Vegetarian Tenants
And Landlords

If you are sharing a
house with someone, it’s nice to share with a fellow vegetarian. With
that in mind, VSS is passing along this rental info from a property agent: Carol Liu, 8383.4898. Please
contact her for details.

Recently, this
newsletter did a bit of explaining about why we should help fishes by not
eating them. Here are two articles related to two reasons why eating fishes is
wrong.

Actor Changes Careers: Becomes
Thermometer

“The playwright had his own take on Piven's illness,
telling Variety: ‘I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he
discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is
that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer.’
”